


The Good One

by laurelofthestory



Category: Nuclear Throne (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Hallucinations, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Violence, Injury, Present Tense, What-If, unreality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-04
Updated: 2017-10-04
Packaged: 2019-01-08 20:00:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12261120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laurelofthestory/pseuds/laurelofthestory
Summary: They're both badly hurt. Gunther tells him to kill her while she's vulnerable, but some part of him does remember her - if only as an image in a fever dream.





	The Good One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SassyDragon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SassyDragon/gifts).



> Blame SassyDragon for this. We were talking about this kind of scenario and then...well, this happened.
> 
> I have way too much fic for Lil Hunter and Rogue. Whoops.

The sounds of yelling and explosions fade.

Not to silence; it's never silent for him. But it's closer to quiet, almost too close. The whispers were softer.

There's something warm and liquid sliding down his side under his plates, collecting at one of his feet and he doesn't like the feeling at all. He tries to sit up, but his pack is too heavy and it hurts to try.

He clutches Gunther in his arms like a lifeline as he hears groaning and crunching in the snow. His eyes are wide and his breathing comes too quickly. The intruder is still here, still moving, the one who'd stolen what was his. He has to get up.

Gunther tells him to kill her before she can get closer. He fights to roll over on his side and get himself in position, but a muffled cry escapes him at the pain. It hurts, it hurts it hurts it hurts, there is green liquid pooling behind him--is he leaking? He's leaking rads. He screws his eyes shut and desperately sucks on the plastic in his mouth. More of the green substance trickles through, numbing his mouth. He still has some left.

Gunther is urging him to get up because she's getting closer, crunch crunch crunch through the snow, he opens an eye, he doesn't know which one, and his shaking hands try to aim but it hurts too much and he finally gets a look at her.

"...Hunter? Are...Are you still in there...?"

Hunter is what he's called, he knows that. She looks hurt and scared. Her eyes are bright blue, not like ice, like something else he almost remembers...

Something inside him knows.

He's seen her before. Never with the mask, or the pack, but she'd be wearing blue, with those eyes, and she'd come and sit with him and talk, he knew her voice but not what she was saying, and whenever she was with him he felt less alone.

\--Not that he's alone, he has Gunther, he pats the rifle as if to assure it he hasn't forgotten about his friend, but at the same time it always felt different when she was around and he always felt as if he lost something when she left.

It hurt. Almost as much as it hurts now.

But never once in any of the times he's seen her has she hurt him, so why was she shooting him? He can't comprehend it. But she doesn't shoot, she kneels down in front of him.

He panics, reaching up for the switch on his ear--if he talks while it's flipped people come, sometimes, not always, but they'd come this time--her eyes go wide and she grabs his wrist.

"No, no, no--!"

He flinches away, Gunther's yelling at him, Gunther never yells but Hunter never doubted him and now he's just confused as he stares at her.

"Can we talk?"

He responds, but it just comes out as mumbles inside his head, and he goes back to sucking on the plastic to steel his nerves. It feels like the ground is moving. He feels sick inside, and cold.

There's liquid coming down one of her arms. Red. He's--he's used to seeing green come out of most things out here. Never red. He wonders if what's going down his side is red. He can't look.

And there's a tiny bit of liquid coming out of her eye. It's clear and shiny, like liquid ice. He doesn't know what it is.

Why did she betray him? Why did she shoot at him? He tries to pull away when she reaches for his head, but he's too weak, and he feels a blast of cold air and everything gets a shade brighter and she reels back.

"Oh god..."

It gets dark again. She stands up. He can just see her feet.

"I'm gonna try and find a medkit...f-for both of us, okay?"

She walks away from him. Gunther tells him to shoot because she's weak and any weak point must be taken advantage of in the interest of taking down the mark, that pack on her back seems like it might combust the way his does so if he can get a shot in it might explode, it'd be messy though and he gets mad at himself when it's messy and...for once, he isn't sure whether he should listen.

He tells Gunther he's sorry, but he wants to know what she wants with him. Besides, everything's dark anyway...

Everything becomes a blur after that. The whispering gets louder. Footsteps.

The sky is dark. She's back. She pulls something off of him; it's blue and he stares at it because he's seen it in his reflection in the ice and it isn't a part of his head? He wants to tell her not to touch him, he gets out some sound, but she keeps him down.

"...I'm gonna--I'm gonna help you out. And we're both gonna go back to the campfire. Together. Okay, Hunter?"

He stares at her blurry face. Gunther tells him not to do it. But he's tired and a fire sounds good. Her voice is nice.

He makes a noise of approval and shuts his eyes.

Things go blurry again after that, but the whispers fade to silence.


End file.
